Recollections of growing up in a large family with both funny and sad stories as well as a look at just how much things have changed in the past 75 years. There are stories like "A week with the Maid" that was like living in the 1800s and funny stories like "The Rat Killing: Bats, Broomsticks and Battleships".Oldest of Eleven is a memoir of grit, grace, and gumbo—an intimate portrait of growing up in mid-century Alabama and Mississippi as the eldest child in a sprawling, unpredictable family. From the clatter of cast-iron skillets to the quiet ache of responsibility, Skeet navigates a childhood shaped by poverty, humor, and the unspoken rules of survival. Each chapter unfolds in a new town, a new kitchen, a new test of resilience, as Skeet learns to lead without a map and love without conditions. Woven with sensory detail and cultural insight, this memoir captures the rhythms of Southern life, the weight of being "the oldest," and the enduring power of storytelling to make sense of it all.
